City
Morning Brew: Saving the Hummer, Suing the Terrorists, Recovering Bodies
Photo: "Monday at the Office" by longboardliving, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.
What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):
An announcement from Harper and Obama is expected today, revealing details of General Motors' bankruptcy filing and fate. On top of giving the failing corporate giant a kajillion more dollars, Canadian and Ontario taxpayers combined are expected to be a 12% owner, and the US 60%. Isn't this exciting? We get to own a company that is losing money and whose incompetence (erase the EV1, commercialize the Humvee?!) is helping to kill the planet at the same time. Awesome that we're saving jobs and trying to rescue an economy though... I guess.
Two more power-generating wind turbines may be erected at Exhibition Place. Wouldn't it be great to have these all over (or surrounding) the city? Do we have any updates on claims that the vibrations caused by wind turbines is bad for our health?
Former US President Bill Clinton has given the Lower Don Lands revitalization project (a 25-year development that aims to renaturalize the mouth of the Don River, introduce a sustainable community that generates more power than it uses, etc) his endorsement as one the world's 16 "climate positive" initiatives. Now all we need is the kajillion dollars to make it happen.
Harper announced yesterday that new federal legislation will allow victims of terrorists to take terrorists and the states that sponsor them to court. Although my sense is that this is a move to make him look tough on terror (and sympathetic with victims), I'm not sure how much beyond symbolic this actually is. I mean, how likely is it that Al-Qaeda leaders are going to go to court and pay the settlement when they lose?
For the second time this week, police have recovered a body of a missing teen - from Lake Ontario, not far from where they'd been last seen. This time is was YorkU student Shane Fair, who had been missing since his school formal at Ontario Place's Atlantis.
Anyone else see the pot of gold at the end of the rare double rainbow (below) that Toronto was graced with this weekend? blogTO reader Patrick McMahon sent us this lovely view. More here.
Discussion
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What pisses me of about the automaker bailout is their sense of entitlement. What makes them so special that they deserve a helping hand when they've done this all to themselves? Other companies that go under just go under, they get nothing. It's understandable to help out banks an credit companies, but a friggin carmaker? Teach them a lesson, let them realize that it's not the import car that's killing them, but rather their own lack of vision and progress.. and that includes both management and union employees. Stop blaming everyone else when it was their own narrow mindedness and greed that screwed them over.
Re: Wind turbines
I thought they didn't have more was cuz of the proximity to skyscrapers and glass windows.
"Wouldn't it be great to have these all over (or surrounding) the city? Do we have any updates on claims that the vibrations caused by wind turbines is bad for our health?".
Problem is, you can't just locate them wherever you want -- they have to go in places where they can be efficient. And to make the outlay worthwhile, they should be in large-ish clusters.
Loved wind turbines until last summer when I spent some time at the Melancthon wind farm. The gentle whoosh-whoosh sound is neat for about an hour, then you just want to get away from it and hear birds again. If you're close enough, you can even hear the machinery. Landowners don't get paid much to live with that (and the uncertainty of living long-term next to all those excited electrons).
They might be a good idea in industrial areas with lots of low warehouses, no residents and few trees. But they shouldn't be "all over" the city.
Re: Shane Fair
Again, perhaps more ignorance on my part, but I'm curious how search efforts failed to find Shane metres away from where he was reported last? Do bodies sink only to float back to the surface? (Sorry if that's a gruesome question)
Re. GM: Their incompetency doesn't stem from Hummer and EV1. Hummer was massively profitable while the EV1 didn't work well, was produced solely to satisfy a legal requirement, and represented a massive liability over the nasty cocktail that made up the batteries. Most of the bloody stars of "Who Killed the Electric Car" would have been first in line to sue GM over their "callous disregard for our community by not taking responsibility for their toxic waste". GM failed because they were locked into labour contracts negotiated when they had a monopoly and preferred to buy short term peace at the cost of long term survival. It's pretty much the classic response of a legacy company from "The Innovator's Dilemma", but instead of technical change it was the difference in labour cost and flexibility that was the key to disruption. We will see the same thing with government contracts with public service unions, and their failure will be even more catastrophic than GM's.
bodies will first sink, and it takes days or weeks for bacteria to produce enough gas to float the body.